News

Pac-12 championship game lacks the sizzle conference was banking on

By David Pollak dpollak@mercurynews.com

Posted:
11/28/2012 05:54:51 PM PST

Updated:
11/28/2012 09:36:46 PM PST

STANFORD -- When it comes to filling Stanford Stadium for the Pac-12 football championship game, the 5 p.m. Friday kickoff and continuing forecasts of rain do not help. Nor does the fact that the host Cardinal and UCLA met just six days earlier in a one-sided contest.

When it comes to the national television exposure the Pac-12 was looking for when it established its title game in 2011, this one lacks the lure of a national title contender.

Still, organizers say a trip to Pasadena on New Year's Day gives both Stanford and UCLA enough incentive to make the game the special event it was intended to be. And they hope college football fans will respond accordingly.

"This is a big deal," said Danette Leighton, the Pac-12's chief marketing officer. "Stanford and UCLA have not been to the Rose Bowl in a very long time and this is for a berth in the Rose Bowl."

Stanford's last appearance was 2000 -- and that was the first time in 28 years. UCLA hasn't been there since 1999.

Through Wednesday morning, about 30,000 of the 50,000 seats in Stanford Stadium had been sold, according to Rich Muschell, the school's director of ticket sales and services. The final figure, he predicted, could reach into the mid-40,000 range.

His optimism was buoyed by ticketing technology.

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"We're steering everybody to go online and print at home," said Muschell, referring to the school's gostanford.com website. "If we didn't have the technology of doing that, good lord, will-call would be a bear. People can buy tickets sitting in their jammies and have tickets in hand."

Ticket prices were set by the Pac-12, and these tickets do cost more than most Stanford games. Students who normally attend for free can get in for a subsidized $20, but non-students must pay $80, $95 or $120 -- comparable, Muschell said, to what it costs to see USC or Notre Dame.

The timing, the weather, the opponent, the price -- despite everything, serious Stanford backers say they wouldn't miss this game.

"Any football junkie wants another game, and I don't care if it's played on Tuesday night at 11 o'clock. Well, I would care, but I'd go," said Jim Rutter, co-founder of thebootleg.com, a fan-driven website.

Other Stanford fans are less charitable. Jason Stevens, an alum from Sebastopol, worried that starting time and ticket prices would combine to create a "lackluster crowd." In an email, he added even though he and 12 friends would be there, "it doesn't feel like a postseason or championship game. It just feels like one extra regular season game."

The weather is the one factor outside anyone's control.

But the 5 p.m. Friday kickoff has been part of the model since the Pac-12 took on two additional teams, divided into two divisions and created a championship game with the Rose Bowl bid at stake. The game -- being shown in prime time in the East and Midwest -- became a significant part of the Pac-12's overall 12-year, $3 billion television contract with Fox and ESPN for football and basketball coverage.

"We wanted to put it on the best available stage and give it the exposure that an event of this importance deserved," said Mike Mulvihill, vice president for programming and research at Fox Sports. "And to us that means prime time. Having established that, we wanted to put it in a place where it would have the stage to itself."

That meant Friday night rather than on Saturday with other conferences holding championship games, as well.

Ideally, he added, the game would have national title implications. That drives ratings more than having a particular school such as USC or Oregon. Since no Pac-12 school is in the national title hunt this year, Mulvihill said the Stanford-UCLA pairing is "as good as you could hope for" and should improve on last year's numbers for the inaugural Pac-12 championship game when 4.5 million people watched Oregon manhandle UCLA 49-31.

The Pac-12 was willing to roll the dice each year on where its game would be held rather than identify one neutral site where every championship would be decided. The SEC, for example, has its game in Atlanta no matter which teams are playing.

The expansive Western geography was a key factor in placing the game on campuses rather than at a predetermined site since fans of both teams could be facing serious travel issues on short notice. But that wasn't the only reason the conference went with what is called the "home-hosted" model.

"This makes the regular season matter more," Leighton said, "that teams earn the right for home field."

The matchup, like the weather, ultimately is something the conference does not control. But the rematch and quick turnaround after Stanford went on the road to beat UCLA 35-17 on Saturday did result from a scheduling quirk. Going forward, the Pac-12 says it will try to keep North and South division teams apart in that final week.

Rutter and others, however, say the rematch aspect doesn't necessarily hurt the game.

"I think that adds to the fascination for a real football fan," Rutter said. "It'll be very interesting playing a team two weeks in a row to watch the adjustments being made, whether people are going to stick to their game plan or throw wrinkles."